I am not a great fan of the Olympics but when I heard that Singapore beat Korea 3-2 and made it to the finals for the Woman’s Table Tennis match, I just could not help feeling proud of my home country. Usually this blog would only discuss media related topics but this occasion calls for an exception.

Singapore was guaranteed at least a silver medal and had a shot at battling China for the Olympics Gold Medal!

Although winning a single silver medal may not seem like a big deal especially when China has already won 30 over medals and many countries several medals too, you must understand that Singapore has not won a single medal for almost 5 decades!

Olympic success for Singapore has been rare and we can only boast a single medal. Weightlifter Howe-Liang Tan won silver in the 77kg category at the 1960 Games in Rome, Italy, but he has remained our only Olympic medal winner. So you can imagine the sense of elation and national pride Singaporeans feel when we received the great news!

A few hours ago, we watched nervously as Singapore battled China for the gold medal. Although we lost the gold medal to China, I think the girls put up a good fight and it was a great match. They have given us our 2nd silver medal in the past 50 years!

Congrats China for winning the Gold and a greater congratulations to the Singapore Table Tennis Team, YOU HAVE DONE US PROUD!

Somebody posted a question on one of my popular articles titled 8 Steps to Producing a Cartoon Series.

The question was short but simple and straight to the point.

‘Pls i need help in producing a cartoon.i can write but cant draw.how do i start?’.

I thought that it was a question whose answer should be shared, and therefore instead of answering directly on the article I thought I would make it a blog post instead.

So here it is. If you can write, but cannot draw or animate, what can you do to embark upon the path of cartoon production?

Well, believe it or not, a writer’s chances of producing a cartoon is even better than an animator’s!

Not convinced? Heard of the saying - “it’s all in the plot”?

75% of a cartoon’s success is dependent on a good concept and storyline, not how good the cast is or how good the animation is! Look at South Park! Do you call that good animation? But has the ridiculously simple flash animation stopped South Park from making families across the world roar with laughter and the producers from making obscene amounts of money? No! Yet South Park would just be a piece of crappy animation without the magic of the scripts! Incidentally, the producers are also the writers in most, if not all, of the scripts.

On the other hand, an artist is an artist is an artist. An animator is an animator is an animator. They usually just draw or animate. But please don’t get me wrong. There are some multi-talented animators and artists who can think of great concepts and ideas too. Just that the specialization is somewhat different and if you start off as a writer, you are more in tune with the top line aspects of producing a cartoon.

Now, if you are convinced you can really write, you may like to follow the steps below to embark on your journey to produce a cartoon.

1. Come up with a strong story concept and think of all the characters that would be in the story.

2. Work with an artist either through a partnership or through outsourcing to create a character bible. If you are not sure what a character bible is, you can read up about it over here.

3. Look around for an animation studio that has a history of producing their own intellectual properties (IP). There are plenty of such studios around, so all you have to do is scout around for a suitable studio that has a history of producing cartoons similar to your genre of writing.

Here, you can (a) pitch your cartoon character bible to them (b) offer to write a few sample synopsis and a sample episode for one of their ongoing cartoon series.

You would be very very very lucky if a studio options your cartoon concept and decides to produce it! It usually doesn’t happen for newbies because they don’t like to take chances with newbies, but most likely it’s because new writers just don’t have the ‘ooomph’ factor in their ideas yet.

Either way, if you are really good at your writing, it opens up the opportunity for them to consider you for a writing contract. If you fail to get an assignment, politely ask the studio for the reason. If it’s because they think you aren’t good enough, it probably means you aren’t good enough. You can go back to hone your skills some more or you can carry on trying. If more than 3 studios tell you the same thing it usually means you really aren’t good enough yet. But practice makes perfect. If you keep trying you would probably get your first assignment,

4. Once you get your first assignment, cherish it like gold! Be flexible about everything (including payment) and cherish the opportunity. Don’t do anything to destroy this silver bullet and do it like it’s your first and last chance! Nobody likes to work with people who are too straight laced and the truth is - after you carve a name for yourself in the industry - companies will scramble for your services even if you are expensive. Don’t be prima donna when you are just a newbie. In fact, my advice to you is never to be a prima donna

5. Try to be involved in as many parts of the production as possible. Ask to be involved in checking out the storyboards and offering your 2 cents on how you think the camera angles should play out. Ask to see the animatics so that you can give your opinion on the pacing and also the animation. You get the idea. Don’t ask for extra fees because most studios would rather do without your help in these areas then. But you can gently request for some credits or offering your creative input. But don’t be too pushy because studios rarely want to give producer or creative credits to a newbie, no matter how good you think you may be. The idea here is to get you as much experience as possible on other parts of the production pipeline.

6. As you get more experience working on such projects, you can begin negotiating for larger roles besides being just the writer. And the best part is, you can start pitching your ideas to TV networks and studios and you can bet some good moolah that they would want to listen to what you have to say!

Some books I recommend to the aspiring writer are:

I hope that this article has been useful and inspiring to you wannabe animation writers out there

The Katakune blog has been launched at http://www.katakune.com/blog!

If you would like to find out how Katakune was conceived and produced from the very start, you can read all about it at Katakune’s blog.

We have unselfishly shared our experiences in developing this series and are showing exclusive never seen before pre-production pictures and animation clips on the blog.

We believe that some of the posts would probably be quite interesting and inspiring to the aspiring character designer, animator or anybody who would like to find out more about what goes on behind producing an animated series.

Regretfully, the dates of the posts do not correspond with the dates of the events described in the blog as we did not think about creating a blog to document Katakune’s progress during that time. But other than that we believe that the Katakune blog has a lot to offer and show.

Please feel free to ask me any questions or feedback on the production through this blog. And please do spread the word about Katakune’s blog if you enjoy it

We’ve just published a spanking hot lens for Katakune on Squidoo. Please check it out at  http://www.squidoo.com/katakune.

For a cartoon property coming out of Singapore - which is a country relatively new in the world of animation - we are humbled that Katakune is making some headway and gaining recognition across the world. Currently already sold to over 20 countries, Katakune would also be having a DVD release in the United States this October.

Characters from the Katakune family are currently being distributed as interactive 3D characters in Japan through Hi Corp’s proprietary mobile 3D engine Mascot Capsule and have been gaining Japanese fans.

Publishing the Squidoo lens is a way for Mediafreaks to increase Katakune’s market recognition and also to share various information on the preschooler property we are so proud of. The lens will showcase various Katakune trivia, exclusive Katakune graphics as well as Katakune animation clips.

We are also in the midst of creating a Cafepress store for Katakune amongst other plans for Katakune.

We welcome partners who would like to speak to us about collaborations.

We would like to work with partners who could give us more exposure for Katakune and also partners who would be interested in licensing and merchandising opportunities. Please drop us a mail at info@media-freaks.com.

Katakune DVDs will be released in USA in October 2008!

Through the efforts of our distributor, Katakune has secured a DVD release deal with PorchLight Home Entertainment. Already broadcasted on the Voom Kid’s Channel Animania HD in 2007, this is Katakune’s second entrance into the North American market and a testimony of Katakune’s cute appeal.

“PorchLight Home Entertainment’s goal is to assemble an unparalleled library of premiere entertainment, like Katakune, for kids and families, offering a collection of programming that is entertaining and engaging at any age,” said Brenda Bisner, VP of children’s programming acquisitions for PorchLight.

We are very happy with this collaboration and we are confident that PorchLight Home Entertainment - with its excellent history of premium content distribution - Katakune is in great hands and will soon meet many more adorable American kids in the near future.

We have always wanted to create an entertaining and educational show for toddlers - a great program which can nurture them in their most important development years and prime them for their schooling years. We want parents to feel safe when they plonk their toddlers infront of TV with the knowledge that their kids will be enriched and nurtured with Katakune. We spent a great deal of effort designing the characters, coming up with scripts and making the animation look great. Apparently our efforts are starting to pay off.

We welcome all inquiries on Katakune. Please drop us a mail at info@media-freaks.com

You can also visit http://www.katakune.com for more information on Katakune.

About the Show

Targeted at kids ages 2-5, the show follows a silkworm named Katakune and his friends who learn important life lessons traveling around the colorful world of Tazzleland. Through interesting scenarios presented in colourful 3D animation, Katakune portrays positive values that children could absorb intuitively whilst enjoying the rich graphics. Educational and entertaining, Katakune shows children simple ways to deal with complex concepts of social responsibility, friendship, life skills and value systems. Additional subjects in basic science, geography, mathematics, health and hygiene, environmental issues and creativity are also illustrated.

About Katakune

Life is full of interesting and funny little incidents that color your life. Join Katakune as he learns about friendship, responsibility, being healthy and so much more!

Katakune is a friendly and curious silkworm, living in the wonderful and colorful world of Tazzleland. Cute, lovable and all-round appealing, Katakune spends his time exploring and learning about his world. In each episode, he becomes more aware of his environment, meets new friends and learns about safety, responsibility and kindness. His endearing personality easily makes him popular with his friends, and together they spend their time growing, learning and developing meaningful friendships.

Licensing & Merchandising

We welcome inquiries on licensing and merchandising for Katakune. Please drop us a mail at info@media-freaks.com

About The Producers

Katakune is a co-production effort between Character Farm Pte Ltd and Wogee Toons, in association with Mega Media and supported by the Media Development Authority of Singapore.

Executive Producers and Creators of Katakune are Aldric Chang and Xavier Feng.

The Katakune Site

http://www.katakune.com

The videos below are in HD and powered by MyToons.

Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy head on a “Journey to the East” for BBC Sport this summer.

This animation based on the classical Chinese novel, “Journey to the West”, was produced by the men behind virtual band Gorillaz - Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett.

The animation is great to say the least. I would say that Damon and Jamie got it right the way they depicted the fighting sequences and monsters in the 2 minute animated clip. It’s a bit lacking on the characterization though if you ask me. The Monkey God is definitely the most powerful of the lot with his 72 transformation moves but not well depicted here. In fact he seemed to be pretty weak save for his famous cloud. Pigsy and Sandy had even more action than him!

There is also controversy that the characters look hideous … but well … these are the guys who produced Gorillaz!

The animation is really good stuff though and I’m sure you will agree. Check out the clip below. You can also read an interview with Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett here.

]]> http://blog.media-freaks.com/bbc-olympics-animation-journey-to-the-east/feed/ http://blog.media-freaks.com/ponyo-on-the-cliff-by-the-sea/ http://blog.media-freaks.com/ponyo-on-the-cliff-by-the-sea/#comments Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:15:49 +0000 Aldric Chang http://blog.media-freaks.com/?p=239

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is a 2008 animated film by the Japanese anime studio Studio Ghibli, it is written and directed by famed anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.

According to reports Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea grossed $14.8 million over the three-day weekend of July 19-21 in Japan. Studio Ghibli’s last feature Tales from Earthsea had grossed $8.4 million in its opening frame in 2006. Ponyo’s opening box-office gross was 96.6 percent of the similar three-day holiday bow of Miyazaki’s Sprited Away in 2001. This also compares with $13.9 million for the opening weekend of Hayao Miyazaki’s previous film Howl’s Moving Castle in 2004.

The plot is centered on Brünnhilde, a fish who runs away from home on the back of a jelly fish. Upon doing so, she is swept to shore by a boat, and is rescued by S?suke, a five year old boy who lives on a cliff, and names her Ponyo. S?suke takes a great liking to her and promises to protect her forever. Meanwhile, her father, Fujimoto, is looking for his daughter, upset that she ran away. He calls his wave demons and has them take Ponyo back to him, since it seems he has an aversion to land. S?suke is heartbroken by this, and goes home crying to his mother, Risa. Risa tries to cheer him up, but to no avail.

Ponyo and her father have a confrontation, where Ponyo voices her want to become human, because she has started to fall in love with S?suke. Her father silences her with difficulty, and goes to summon Ponyo’s mother, but meanwhile, Ponyo, with the help of her sisters, breaks away from her father’s barriers, and mixes herself in with his magic, becoming a human girl. By doing this, she causes an inbalance in the world, which in turn results in a tsunami. Riding on the waves of the tsunami, Ponyo goes back to visit S?suke. Risa, S?suke, and Ponyo stay the night at S?suke’s house, hoping the tsunami will be over, whereupon Risa leaves the house to check up on the residents of the nursing home she works at. S?suke and Ponyo wake up to find that the most of the lands has submerged. Risa has not yet come home, so, with the help of Ponyo’s magic, go to find her.

Meanwhile, Risa is talking with Granmammare, Ponyo’s mother. Fujimoto notices the moon is deorbited and the satellites falling like shooting stars. Granmammare declares that if S?suke and Ponyo succeed a test, Ponyo will be allowed to live as a human, and the world order will be restored.

Below are more clips of Ponyo’s behind the scenes and even one of George Lucas meeting up with Toshio Suzuki - the producer of Ponyo. It just shows you how cute cartoon characters can really sell in Japan! Enjoy!

What could be greater than a lightsaber duel between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs? A lightsaber duel where YOU get to control one. And what could be the next best thing to seeing the two big men squabble ‘live’? An animation of them bringing it onto each other!

Mr. Jobs is depicted more like a gruff street fighter while Mr. Gates is a little on the ’soft’ side. Hilarious how Bill Gates really goes “Yipee!” if you pick him.

This is an excellent and pretty hilarious set comprising a game and an animation of Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs. I am not sure who created these but what I can say is that they are really good!

]]> http://blog.media-freaks.com/gates-vs-jobs/feed/ http://blog.media-freaks.com/who-says-rome-cant-be-built-in-a-day/ http://blog.media-freaks.com/who-says-rome-cant-be-built-in-a-day/#comments Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:08:38 +0000 Aldric Chang http://blog.media-freaks.com/?p=232

CityEngine Generates Rome in One Day

Procedural Inc. Ships New Urban Modeling Solution, CityEngine, Allowing Mass Creation of City Models 10 Times Faster for Film & TV Production, Game Development, Architecture and City Planning; Free Trial Version Available For Download.

9Zurich, Switzerland, July 21, 2008) At this year’s SIGGRAPH, a spectacular 3D recreation of ancient Rome (A.D. 320) will be revealed where revolutionary graphics technology has been applied to reconstruct the extremely detailed virtual urban environment. It wasn’t until now that professional users could actually buy the software that made it possible, Procedural Inc.’s CityEngine®.

Procedural Inc., an innovative software company located in Zurich, Switzerland, is home to the world’s foremost procedural modeling technology. With the CityEngine, Procedural Inc.’s graphics experts have created a radically different 3D application that allows the modeling of cities up to 10 times faster than previous solutions, making automatic digital city creation possible for professional users. This makes it a compelling tool for the production of video games, feature films and television series, architectural visualizations and applications for the emerging 3D internet, where consumers expect richer, higher quality digital content for their dollar.

Cities are huge, richly detailed artifacts that are often required in digital productions, and modeling them with existing tools can take several man years, says Pascal Müller, CEO of Procedural Inc. The CityEngine addresses these previously unsolved modeling problems by offering several procedural modeling tools for generating large-scale urban layouts, as well as a unique shape grammar for the efficient creation of detailed building models. With these tools, users not only experience a faster modeling experience, but one which allows them to create cityscapes that have never been seen before.

As the core of the CityEngine, the shape grammar has been designed specifically for rule-based production of architectural content at arbitrary levels of detail. The procedurally generated 3D buildings can be exported in various file formats, allowing for a flexible and simple integration into existing production pipelines. In addition, the underlying procedural approach ensures the reusability of designs and is well suited for collaborative work environments.

The CityEngine is a perfect match for the Rome Reborn project, says Bernard Frischer, director of Rome Reborn. Our project involves the complete virtual reconstruction of the city at its zenith under Emperor Constantine, when it had about one million residents. To build by hand the corresponding 7,000 apartment buildings, family houses, public buildings and temples would have taken us forever; but CityEngine’s power and flexibility made the process amazingly quick without sacrificing detail or quality. This allowed us to concentrate on modeling the unique monuments. The CityEngine also helps to quickly change the model as new scholarship or discoveries warrant.

After the Rome building designs had been specified in the CityEngine, generating and exporting the entire city model took exactly 1 hour and 55 minutes, continues Müller. Thus, Rome actually WAS built in one day& or, at least its digital counterpart was.

The release of CityEngine also marks the official debut of Procedural Inc. Founder and CEO Pascal Müller was formerly a researcher at ETH Zurich, where he pioneered the field of procedural urban modeling (with his series of SIGGRAPH publications about procedural urban modeling), which led to the creation of CityEngine. In just six months, the Procedural engineering team under CTO Simon Schubiger transformed the research into a powerful industry application.

Pricing and Availability

Priced at $6,950 per license, the CityEngine is now available for purchase via Procedural’s website, www.procedural.com, or by telephone order at +41 76 720 3303. A free 30-day trial version, including example scenes, is also available for download at www.procedural.com.

About Procedural Inc.

Based in Zurich, Switzerland, Procedural Inc. is a developer of professional software for the efficient creation of 3D buildings and cities. Its flagship product, CityEngine® offers the fastest solution for creating high-quality architectural elements, allowing urban environments to be created 10 times faster than any other solution. Founded in 2007, the company is a spin-off of ETH Zurich, Switzerland’s most renowned university, ranking among the Top-10 technical universities worldwide.

For further information, or to join the active Procedural community, please visit Procedural’s web site at www.procedural.com.

High-resolution imagery supporting the CityEngine, including an exclusive screen shot of Rome Reborn may be downloaded at www.procedural.com/company/press_room.

CityEngine is a registered trademark of Procedural Inc. Other product and company names herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Reader contact: Procedural Inc.
Technoparkstrasse
8005 Zurich, Switzerland
http://www.procedural.com
info@procedural.com

Original Source: http://www.creative-3d.net/newsviewer.cfm?NewsID=1541

Although they get a lot of hype, movies shot in 3-D have historically been a bit of a headache. You’d put on a pair of flimsy cardboard glasses with red-and-blue gel lenses that looked like they might rip during a strong sneeze, and then watch murky visuals just for the thrill of having some blurrily realistic-looking thing jump off the screen at you.

Lately, though, things have changed. If you go to see “Journey to the Center of the Earth” in 3D, you’ll receive a plastic pair of dark glasses that might give you memories of “Risky Business.” They’re large enough to fit comfortably over a regular pair of eyeglasses, and solid enough to survive, say, any movement of your head. The movie’s 3-D visuals are striking, as well - an audience went ewwww when star Brendan Fraser rinsed out his mouth and spat the water right “into” their faces, and screamed when some ugly piranha-looking fish flew through one subterranean scene.

The movie is based on Jules Verne’ 1864 novel, but updated to the 21st century, in which Fraser plays an eccentric scientist who takes his nephew (Josh Hutcherson) and an Icelandic mountain guide (Anita Briem) on a quest that unexpectedly leads them on a waaaay underground trip. During a recent Dallas interview, Fraser and Eric Brevig, the movie’s effusive director, had some things to say about the movie and its “Real D” effects.

WHY ‘JOURNEY’ LOOKS BETTER THAN PREVIOUS 3-D FEATURE FILMS

- Brevig: The problem that has always been plaguing 3-D for mass theater release is that you had no control over the exhibition. That will kill you if it’s uncomfortable to watch. The colored-glasses version and the process they had for years there is just no fun. You can’t have an audience sit with something that’s sort of bothering them for very long, where you get eyestrain and they take off the glasses and they go, “I hate 3-D.”

With digital projection reaching a plateau, there are now enough digital projectors out there that you can actually have a wide release. With a small modification that allows it to project 3D through the same projector, the problem has been solved. Any theater in the land can buy one of these projectors and put the modification on it. You can see it in any theater as well as we would see it when we were making it.

WHY IT’S FUN TO WATCH OTHER PEOPLE WATCH THE MOVIE

- Fraser: One of my favorite things to do is to watch the audience watch this film, because they’re immersed in it. They’re drawn into it, whether they want to be or not. They’re brought into the world of it, and it comes to them, also because of these all-new technical innovations … that have in themselves become a new art form.

It’s also a new social form, because you must go to the theater to experience this. How many ways can we watch movies? At home, DVD, on-demand, all these different ways. But this it at the cinema. It’s a cinema experience. You actually go there and see it with the kids and Grandma and Grandpa, stepdads, strangers. Everyone is forgetting who they are. Some sort of phenomenon takes place where everyone just goes along for the ride.

- Brevig: It’s more like a great day at a theme park than at a theater.

HOW FILMING WAS LIKE A DAY AT A THEME PARK

- Brevig: The stunts that you see the (cast) doing, that’s all real. (In one scene, Fraser hangs upside down over boiling lava while trying to throw lit flares into a small crevice.) I was looking at the outtakes just recently, and I forgot this, but we used a real road flare. The smoke from those is toxic.

- Fraser: It’s horrible.

- Brevig: And if you hang upside down and do this, which is what he had to do, the smoke goes right in (your) face. And he’s literally almost asphyxiating, trying to hold his breath and do the scene (pants heavily) like that. You wouldn’t know, watching the movie, that that’s the most dangerous part of it.

- Fraser: (The flares have) sparks that don’t go out, even in water.

- Brevig: We had a bucket of water, so that when you threw it, it would quickly put out the fire. It didn’t put it out. It just kept catching the wooden set on fire.

- Fraser: You want to tell him the set burned down?

- Brevig: (Laughs) It’s a wooden set, completely covered in this fireproof material, and he throws (the flare) and he manages to find a crack between the two pieces of the set that weren’t covered. And it goes under the set, where we can’t get to it, because we put fireproof material everywhere. We hear it fizzing as the plywood underneath catches fire.

- Fraser: Crackle, crackle, crackle (laughs).

HOW FILMING WAS LIKE ‘REALLY EXPENSIVE STUDENT FILMMAKING’

- Brevig (who was quoted saying that on World Entertainment News Network): It turns out the studio didn’t like me saying that. What I meant was, you have to use ingenuity that goes back to when I didn’t have the right tools as a student filmmaker, and you make do with what you have. Well, the tools didn’t exist. We had to figure it out while we were out there, with equipment that had never been designed for what we were using it for. Every day was a head-scratcher.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF 3-D TECHNOLOGY

1838 (some sources say 1833): Sir Charles Wheatstone invents the stereoscope, a device for seeing pictures in three dimensions. (In “Journey to the Center of the Earth” in 3D, Brendan Fraser’s character finds a similar device and says he doesn’t know what it is).

1903 (some sources say 1905): Auguste and Louis Lumiere shoot “L’Arrivee du Train,” a one-minute film. Presented at the World Fair of 1903 in Paris, it is believed to be the first publicly exhibited 3-D film. See it at www.stereoscopy.com.

1922: “The Power of Love” is filmed in the “anaglyph process,” an early version of 3-D that involved shooting two views of the same scene, printing the film in different colors, then layering the film on one reel.

1952: Battling upstart TV, studios begin producing films that can only be appreciated in theaters. “Bwana Devil,” hyped as the first commercially released 3-D movie, begins a wave of ’50s 3-D films.

1953: “House of Wax,” starring Vincent Price, is released, and becomes the most popular of the 1950s 3-D films. (It is remade in 2005 in a standard format, although Paris Hilton is in the cast, so you could consider it a 1-D film.)

1955: The 3-D craze begins to wane. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film, “Dial M for Murder,” is shot in 3-D but is barely released in that format (it does well in the standard 2-D format). Arguably the last major 3-D release of the decade is 1955’s “Revenge of the Creature,” Clint Eastwood’s first film.

1960s: According to the Internet Movie Database, 10 3-D films are released during the entire decade, as opposed to 74 3-D features and shorts during the 1950s. “The Stewardesses,” released in 1969, uses a new and more economical single-camera 3-D system, but it is probably the dimensions of the actresses of this then-X-rated film that made this one of the most profitable movies of all time.

1981-83: 3-D movies go through a brief revival with “Comin’ at Ya!,” a spaghetti Western that “threw” all manner of objects (except a good story) at the audience, and “Friday the 13th Part III.” Movies such as “Jaws 3-D” and “Amityville 3-D” help put a damper on the short-lived revival.

1985: IMAX develops its first 3-D feature, “We Are Born of Stars.” Two years later, the first permanent IMAX 3-D feature opens in Vancouver, B.C.

1986: Michael Jackson stars in “Captain EO,” a 3-D short screened at Disney theme parks.

1997: Previous attempts at 3-D TV were misfires, but “3rd Rock From the Sun” scores with dream sequences filmed in 3-D.

2007: Pop stars get in on the act with such concert films as “U23D” and a 3-D version of the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert movie.

SOURCES: Stereoscopy.com; Kansas City Star; Internet Movie Database (imdb.com); Leonard Maltin’s 2008 Movie Guide; www.imax.com

Original Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/health/healthAP/story/615228.html

I did a post on some great looking wooden toys I found on the internet yesterday but was unable to say where the toys came from. My good friend - Xavier Feng (also co-creator and Creative Director on our animated series Katakune) - gave me the answer today - you can find them at Take-G Toys. According to the website, Take-G toy’s is a ‘toy’ maker which mostly deals with wooden crafts hand-made by a Japanese craftsman called Takeji (Take-G) Nakagawa. His motto is “to bring wooden beauty and quality into life in my own style”.

I personally think he’s really very talented and gifted - both in character design and in crafting these beautiful wooden toys. I have to admit - I was never a fan of wooden toys until I saw Take-G’s toys!

Enjoy!

I went to this link quite by mistake and guess what I saw? Well…let me just say that this is a very aptly named movie. According to sources they are desperately looking for distributors. I’m sure they will need pretty gutsy ones. I would refrain from commenting on the quality of the trailer and let you guys be the judge

]]> http://blog.media-freaks.com/freaky-flickers-freaky-indeed/feed/ http://blog.media-freaks.com/beautifully-designed-wooden-cartoon-toys/ http://blog.media-freaks.com/beautifully-designed-wooden-cartoon-toys/#comments Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:01:02 +0000 Aldric Chang http://blog.media-freaks.com/?p=215 With recent news of high lead content and chemicals in plastic toys for kids, it is perhaps not a bad idea to look towards toys made from other materials.

How’s wood for example? I’ve never been a fan of wooden toys personally, until I saw this collection. It totally blew me away! Check them out yourself.

Wooden toys may not offer all of the same flexibility that typical plastic toys have, but they are also less dangerous. At least you don’t deal with chemicals and lead when you purchase a hand-crafted wooden toy. You can feel more confident and safer about having your child play with wooden toys as they are often created by local crafters or by companies that are more ethical than the larger toy makers.

Unfortunately I’m not able to ascertain the source of where these toys are designed and manufactured nor where to purchase them. Perhaps somebody can advise?

Here’s the trailer of the famous allegedly ripoff movie based on the Pixar hit Ratatouille - Ratatoing. I can’t quite stand the ‘toing’ at the end - wonder what they were thinking when they made this. In fact, I wonder what the distributor and stores that sell this product is thinking and who’s going to pay good money to buy this cr*p! It ‘toings’ the mind!

Beneath is a movie review on Ratatoing from Toon Zone that gives it like it is!

You’ll see them in supermarkets and toy stores everywhere: the inexpensive DVDs that are clear ripoffs of whatever animated movie has just hit the theaters. You may have even wondered to yourself, “How bad can they really be?”

Unsurprisingly, the answer is “pretty damn bad.” With nothing better to do with $8.00, I decided to have a look at Ratatoing, which rips off Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille in the hope that an unusually stupid child will convince an unusually stupid parent that this movie will be just like the one in the theaters. Should this stupid child succeed, he or she will get their just desserts. Ratatoing will show you depths of suck that you would have never thought possible. If you ate a copy of the worst cartoon you can think of, you’d still probably crap something better than Ratatoing.

Marcell Toing is a rat who runs Ratatoing, the most popular rat restaurant in Rio de Janeiro. All the rats in the neighborhood want to know his secret, which, apparently, is that he steals fresh ingredients from the adjacent human restaurant. Some competitors try to ruin Ratatoing by convincing the human restaurant that it faces a rat infestation, and much mayhem ensues. Or it would have, if the story were any good.

Watching a movie like this can make you truly appreciate Pixar’s craft, even if you didn’t like Ratatouille very much. Ratatoing has absolutely no sense of pacing or comic timing, dragging everything out interminably without a laugh to be found anywhere. Assuming you can stay awake for the whole thing, you’ll be checking your watch every five minutes hoping it’ll be over soon. The movie takes 44 endless minutes when Pixar (or even DreamWorks or Sony) could have the whole thing far better as a 5-10 minute short.

The lack of flow applies to the animation as well, which is flat, dull, and not very well done. You can get better animation and CGI textures in just about any PlayStation 2 game. On The Incredibles‘ commentary track, Brad Bird noted that computers want to make everything smooth, clean, and shiny, and the makers of Ratatoing did nothing to counter this tendency. The rats seem like they’re carved out of hard plastic and are only marginally more expressive than the furniture around them.

Apparently, this movie was originally made in Brazil, but comes to American shores with a dubbed English and Spanish soundtrack, thus ensuring that lip sync doesn’t match either language. One gets the impression that half the script is just filler to try and match up with the mouth flaps, but I can’t imagine that anything being said in the original Portuguese could make this DVD any better.

The biggest tragedy of all is the senseless waste of raw materials it took to get this video to store shelves. The only other film I can compare this to is Larry Clark’s Kids: an astonishing waste of time, energy, and effort for all parties concerned with absolutely nothing to recommend it, and which will actually make you angry that you’ll never get the time and brain cells you wasted on it back.

Original Source : http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=19884

Ever since Kungfu Panda hit the big screen, there has been much controversy over the show. Not with regards to the quality of the show, the storyline or Jack Black. The controversy has largely been with how some countries has been displeased with the popularity the show has been garnering and the alarming amount of counterfeit goods associated with Kungfu Panda has been churning out.

Well, seems like another country has joined the club.

Check out this animated feature The Little Panda Fighter

Some are dubbing this the Kungfu Panda movie ripoff. Well, theoretically speaking, if the story isn’t built on the same premise, it shouldn’t be constituted as a ripoff. You can perhaps say it’s a knockoff for trying to pass off for the real thing, but … anyway you be the judge

Here are more controversial news on Kungfu Panda!

http://blog.media-freaks.com/kungfu-panda-scores-in-china-but/

http://blog.media-freaks.com/kungfu-panda-knockoffs/

This is a great HD trailer of the upcoming Star Wars - The Clone Wars animated feature from Lucas Films from MyToons.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars will have its world premiere at the Egyptian Theatre along Hollywood Boulevard on Aug. 10, five days before it opens in theaters.

The event will hold certain historical meaning as The Egyptian was one of two Los Angeles theaters where the first “Star Wars” sequel, “The Empire Strikes Back,” played during its extended run in 1980.

“The Clone Wars” will be followed by an animated TV series of the same name debuting this fall on the Cartoon Network and TNT.

The movie and TV show are set between the action of the second and third chapters of Lucas’ prequel trilogy, “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith.”

The film centers on a galactic civil war, with Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker — the future villain Darth Vader — embarking on a mission that pits him and his apprentice against crime boss Jabba the Hutt. The voice cast includes veteran “Star Wars” performers, including Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu, Christopher Lee as Count Dooku and Anthony Daniels as C-3PO.

Among other key voice cast members are Matt Lanter as Anakin, Ashley Eckstein as his apprentice Ahsoka Tano and James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Lucas served as executive producer on “The Clone Wars” movie, which was directed by Dave Filoni.

After 3 days of vigorous revamping, the Mediafreaks corporate website is finally up again! We are taking the bold step of using a blog system for our corporate site as we recognize the advantages and ease of updating a website running on a blog engine. It will also convenience visitors who come onto our site to search for whatever they are looking for. Hopefully this will be as great an experience it is for you as it was for us updating the look of the Mediafreaks corporate website.

For those of you who tried visiting the Mediafreaks main site, you probably see weird things happening with it. That’s because we are currently revamping our site for a better browsing experience. We will be up again in one or two days. Meanwhile do take some time to browse through our blog. Please contact us at info@media-freaks.com for any business inquiries or pure banter

Google’s Lively is a Web-based project similar to Second Life. This shows a re-creation of Google headquarters, complete with the T. Rex skeleton.

Google on Tuesday plans to unveil an online 3D social arena called Lively, the Internet giant’s take on Second Life. But Google wants it to be part of your first life.

Second Life requires users to download and install a separate “client” software package that taps into the online world. Lively also requires a download and installation–Windows only for now–but then people can use Internet Explorer or Firefox to enter the virtual world.

“It’s integrated with the Internet. It’s not an alternate destination,” said Niniane Wang, Google’s engineering manager for the project. “Our intention is to add to your existing life.”

Integration with the ordinary Internet takes several forms. For one thing, you can pipe in content hosted elsewhere on the Internet, including photos or videos. For another, you can embed your Lively area into your blog or, using widgets Google has written, on MySpace and Facebook Web pages. And you can e-mail your friends a normal Web address to get them to join.

With Lively, you can set up you own online spaces–rooms, grassy meadows, desert islands, or, in the demo version I tried, simulated Silicon Valley office parks. You can change the clothing or form of your avatar (that’s your online incarnation, for those of you who missed the Second Life hype). And of course you can chat, do backflips, shake hands, and give high-fives.

The idea is to bring a better social dimension to online interaction, Wang said–something more sophisticated for expressing oneself than an emoticon on an instant-messenger status line.

“We think there is a desire to socialize in this way,” Wang said, suggesting that’s why Second Life got so much attention when it blossomed in popularity a couple years ago. “We hope this product will help them do that.”

Integration with the Internet is indeed a significant departure from the Internet, but much of the Lively sales pitch will sound–how to put this politely–familiar to those who’ve already read virtual worlds press releases from years past.

I had a number of burps and hiccups using Lively in my demo on a somewhat elderly but by no means ancient laptop, problems Wang said weren’t widespread. When it’s working correctly, it took a little while to master the controls for moving the perspective and my avatar around.

After that, the novelty wore off even more rapidly than with Second Life. I’m sure it would have been more exciting with somebody else to talk to than a mock-up of Google’s T. Rex skeleton, and perhaps if it were a room that I designed myself.

Don’t get me wrong. I remain a believer, overall, in this form of online interaction, however socially stunted it may feel compared with, say, a singles bar. I just think the technology has a ways to go. I found Second Life more immersive, but even so, even the relatively crude communications enabled by e-mail and instant messaging did more to revolutionize my online social interactions.

A few other differences from Second Life: Lively doesn’t have money. It’s designed to be easier to use, with a drag-and-drop interface. And it’s not programmable, at least yet, so you can only select furniture, clothes, hairstyles, and such from the prefabricated catalog Google supplies.

Money and programmability are both items the company is seriously considering, though, Yang said. A Mac OS X client also is a high priority, she added.

Source - http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9984909-93.html?hhTest

This is the trailer for Disney’s Bolt.

The movie - slated for release in November - featuring the vocal stylings of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus, follows a dog who stars as the hero of his own TV show. Every day is filled with adventure, danger , intrigue and super powers until the cameras stop rolling one day. When the dog star of a hit TV show is accidentally shipped from his Hollywood soundstage to New York City, he begins his biggest adventure yet—a cross-country journey through the real world. Armed only with the delusions that all his amazing feats and powers are real, and with the help of two unlikely traveling companions: a jaded, abandoned housecat named Mittens (voice of Susie Essman) and a TV-obsessed hamster in a plastic ball named Rhino, Bolt discovers another adventure. He also discovers he doesn’t need superpowers to be a hero.